Data Snapshot: North Carolina Veterans

Nationwide, there are nearly 21.5 million veterans. More than 736,000 veterans live in North Carolina, representing 9.8% of the state’s total population. Below is a snapshot of the most recent statistics on North Carolina veterans.

Who are North Carolina’s veterans?

The median age of NC veterans is 61. The majority of veterans are 45 or older: 41% are ages 45-64 and 38% are 65 or older.

91% of NC veterans are male. 9% are female.

North Carolina veterans by race and ethnicity:
Where do they live?

The greatest number of veterans live in North Carolina’s three major urban areas: Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham, and Greensboro-Winston Salem-High Point. Fayetteville and Jacksonville have the greatest population proportion veteran: 18% and 16%, respectively, much higher than the state proportion (9.8%).

When did they serve?

More than one-third served in Vietnam and 28% served in one or both Gulf War eras.

Of North Carolina’s veterans, 475,000 served in one war; 70,000 served in two wars; and 2,600 served in three wars.

Analysis was restricted to individuals 17 and older. Data used in this blog post are from the 2011 American Community Survey data in the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) from the Minneapolis Population Center at the University of Minnesota. Analysis was inspired by this infographic from the Census Bureau.